The Internet and the Pandemic
Nine-in-ten Americans say the internet has been essential or important to them, many made video calls and 40% used technology in new ways. But while tech was a lifeline for some, others faced struggles.
Unprecedented national news events, a sharp and sometimes hostile political divide, and polarized news streams created a ripe environment for misinformation and made-up news in 2020. The truth surrounding the two intense, yearlong storylines – the coronavirus pandemic and the presidential election – was often a matter of dispute, whether due to genuine confusion or […]
Given the challenges of survey research detailed above, it is worth considering other approaches to measuring news consumption – especially when it comes to getting news online. One possibility is so-called “passive” data, in which respondents’ online activity is recorded automatically by a computer tracker. Several vendors now offer these types of panels: They recruit […]
Broadly speaking, perhaps the biggest problem with survey measurement of news consumption is that it seems to produce inflated estimates of how much news people consume when compared with other sources, such as ratings or online trackers.[5.numoffset=”5″ E.g., Prior, 2009, “The Immensely Inflated News Audience: Assessing Bias in Self-Reported News Exposure.”] This may be because, […]